On 23 March 2026, a Jetstar A321neo lifted off from Avalon bound for Denpasar. It was the first international passenger flight out of the airport in six years — services had stopped in March 2020 and stayed stopped. Three days later, direct Avalon–Adelaide flights returned. Brisbane capacity went up. And for the first time, a public bus route connects the terminal and the surrounding employment precinct directly to Lara Station.
For a township of Lara's size, having an international airport fifteen minutes up the road is genuinely unusual. It is also, historically, something Lara has been asked to accommodate rather than invited to benefit from. Noise, traffic on Forest Road, the airshow crowds every second year — the costs have always been local. The benefits have often been described in regional or state-wide terms.
So this is worth looking at properly.
01 / What's actually happenedThe 2026 expansion, itemised.
Figure 01 · Timeline
Avalon, from suspension to reopening.
Master Plan approved by the Department of Defence
The plan provides for significant expansion of airport operations and the establishment of non-aviation development on the site — including expansion of the domestic terminal for international operations up to 10,000 m² without a Major Development Plan, and provision for a new international terminal.
International services suspended
Avalon's international operations stopped during the pandemic and did not resume for six years.
Route 18 bus begins
A new public bus route connecting Avalon Airport and the Geelong Avalon Employment Precinct to Lara Station, seven days a week — with stops at the precinct on Canberra Drive and at the terminal entrance. Route 11 was withdrawn and partly absorbed into it.
International flights return
Jetstar JQ49 to Denpasar departs at 6:30 pm — five return flights a week. Avalon's first international departure since 2020.
Adelaide returns, Brisbane expands
Direct Avalon–Adelaide services resume with up to seven flights weekly, plus five additional Brisbane services.
Sources: Avalon Airport planning documents, Transport Victoria service notices, and aviation trade reporting on the March 2026 reopening.
Figure 02 · The upgrade package
What the money bought.
Also delivered: runway lighting upgrades, new security screening equipment, new CCTV, and new water connections to the control tower. Avalon's runway is 3,075 metres — long enough for wide-body aircraft, and one of the reasons the site has always had more capacity than its passenger numbers suggest.
02 / The business parkWhat GAEP actually is.
The bit that gets less coverage than the flights is the Geelong Avalon Employment Precinct — the industrial and commercial land around the airport. This is the part with the greatest long-term significance for Lara, because aviation employs people in cycles and precincts employ people continuously.
Avalon has an industrial history most people have forgotten. The Government Aircraft Factory built aircraft on this site. Qantas ran heavy maintenance and engineering operations here for decades, making the airport one of the region's larger employers well before it carried holiday traffic. The land, the runway length and the freight access are all still there.
The Master Plan explicitly contemplates non-aviation development. The new bus route stops at the precinct on Canberra Drive, not just the terminal — which tells you the state government expects people to be working there, not just flying out of there.
Figure 03 · Why the precinct matters more than the flights
Two kinds of economic benefit.
Visible, volatile
- Highly cyclical — routes open and close with airline strategy
- Vulnerable to shocks — six years of no international flights proved it
- Jobs are real but concentrated in ground handling, retail, security
- Politically attractive — a ribbon-cutting with an aircraft in the background
Quieter, stickier
- Longer-term tenancies in logistics, freight, aerospace, manufacturing
- Less exposed to airline route decisions
- Skilled, trade-based roles — the sort a Lara apprentice can build a career on
- Rarely announced with a media event, so it gets less scrutiny
If you live in Lara and you care about your kids being able to work locally, the precinct is the thing to watch.
A flight to Bali is a nice headline. A stable job in a hangar or a freight facility that your kid can ride a bike to is a better outcome. — David Greenwood OAM
03 / Council's roleYes, this is a council matter.
Here is a fact that surprises people: the City of Greater Geelong remains the Planning Authority for the Avalon Airport site under the approved Master Plan arrangements. The airport is privately owned and Commonwealth aviation regulation governs a great deal of what happens on the airside. But council is not a bystander in what gets built around it.
That matters because most of the things that determine whether Lara benefits from Avalon rather than merely absorbing it are exactly the things local government touches:
Figure 04 · Four levers council actually holds
Where local decisions change local outcomes.
Roads & access
Local road capacity, intersection safety and freight routing between the precinct and the township. Forest Road and the local network carry the consequences of growth here.
Planning conditions
What gets approved, at what scale, with what buffers, landscaping, noise attenuation and hours of operation.
Local employment
Advocating for local hiring, local apprenticeships and local procurement as a condition of the region's support — not as an afterthought.
Active transport
A safe walking and cycling connection between Lara township, the station and the precinct. Right now that connection does not properly exist.
04 / The honest gapsFour things I'd want answered.
I'm broadly supportive of Avalon growing. I'd rather live near a working airport with jobs attached than a quiet one with none. But support without scrutiny is how communities end up with all of the traffic and none of the upside.
Figure 05 · Open questions
What Lara should be asking.
None of these are objections. They are the conditions under which growth becomes a local benefit rather than a local cost.
The lazy framing
"Avalon is expanding, therefore Lara benefits."
The accurate framing
Avalon is expanding. Whether Lara benefits depends on decisions that haven't all been made yet.
05 / The airshowWorth saying out loud.
Every second year the Australian International Airshow brings enormous crowds through the You Yangs Ward. It's a genuinely world-class event and I'm glad it's ours. It is also, for a few days, an extremely large logistical event imposed on a small township's road network.
The reasonable ask is not that it stop. It's that the traffic management, the temporary infrastructure and the community compensation arrangements are negotiated with Lara residents as partners rather than presented as a fait accompli — and that some share of the economic activity it generates is visible locally, not just regionally.
06 / The bottom lineGrowth is good. Terms matter.
Avalon's reopening is the best economic news the northern end of this municipality has had in a while, and I don't want to be churlish about it. More flights, more jobs, more reason for businesses to look at the precinct — that's a good direction.
But the northern suburbs and Lara have a long history of hosting infrastructure that serves the wider region while the local benefit remains largely theoretical. Refineries, freight corridors, an airport. The pattern is familiar enough that residents are entitled to be sceptical.
The way you break that pattern is unglamorous: measure local employment and publish it, build the transport connections that let locals actually reach the jobs, settle the freight routes before the trucks arrive, and treat the township as a partner in planning rather than an affected party to be notified.
If you work at Avalon, or you've tried to get a job there, I'd like to hear from you. Was the recruitment local? Could you get there without a car? What would have made the difference? Specific experience is worth more than assumptions. Email david@centrestage.org.au with "Avalon" in the subject.